Proposed Orlans towers are too tall, residents argue

People living in Petrie's Landing aren't happy about a proposal to build four new highrises that are much taller than the two they already have.

The two existingtowers are 15 and 16 storeys high.

Developer Brigil submitted a proposal to the city in Novemberseeking permission to build four more towers nearby, standingbetween 18 and 32 storeys.

But the original plan was to keep any additional towers roughly the same size as the first two, and the developer's submitted proposal has left some residents upset about the prospect of that much densification.

"The property should be developed as originally envisaged," said David Primeau, who lives in one of the existing Petrie towers.

"We could put a lot of people in a lot of buildings but it doesn't necessarily achieve a sound community."

Primeauspokein front of dozens of other residents and representatives of Brigilduring a community information session put on by the city Monday night. Several other residents voicedconcerns about increased traffic.

"The roadway is not really designed for that [amount of people]," said Lyle Gainsford.

The buildings are located on Inlet Private, a small streetnear Trim Road and Jeanne D'Arc Boulevard.

"The roadway has two very sharp corners. One corner cannot be navigated by [large vehicles]," Gainsford said.

LRT on the way

WithTrim Road setto be the eastern terminus of Phase2 LRTin 2022, the proposal falls in line with the city's goal to increase density aroundfuture light rail stations.

In their proposal,Brigilargued theproximity to light railwarrants the extra height and units.

OrlansCoun. Matthew Luloff, who inherited the file from former councillor Bob Monette, attended Monday night's meeting.

"I think that we hear that the height they're proposing is too much for the land to handle," Luloffsaid. "But I think that the residentsunderstand that we need to have density around the LRT."

Primeauargued that if larger highrises are neededaround LRT, he'd prefer to see them spread out a little more.

Luloff said he would work with Brigil to ensure the concerns of residentsare taken into account going forward.